Deliberate Practice in Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy

Deliberate practice exercises help trainees achieve competence in essential psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy skills and apply them in a range of clinical situations while honing their own personal style and language.

These exercises present role-playing scenarios in which two trainees act as a client and a therapist, switching back and forth under the guidance of a supervisor. The therapist improvises appropriate and authentic responses to client statements organized into three difficulty levels—beginner, intermediate, and advanced—that reflect common client questions and concerns.

Each of the first 12 exercises focuses on a single skill that include tending to clients’ bodily and emotional states before introducing psychedelic medicine to treatment, exploring ethical and cultural implications, and working with clients in altered states of consciousness to promote wellbeing. Two comprehensive exercises follow in which trainees integrate these essential skills into a single psychedelic-assisted therapy session.

Step-by-step instructions guide participants through the exercises, identify criteria for mastering each skill, and explain how to monitor and adjust difficulty. Guidelines to help trainers and trainees get the most out of training are also provided.

Shannon Dames, RN, MPH, EdD, lives and serves as a health professional investigator and professor on Vancouver Island in the unceded territory of the Stz’uminus and Snuneymuxw People. She founded the Roots to Thrive program, Vancouver Island University’s (VIU) Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy Graduate Certificate program, and VIU’s Naut sa Mawt Centre for Psychedelic Research. Dr. Dames’s expertise is in nursing practice, resilience development, and psychedelic-assisted therapy research and education. Her research promotes resiliency and reconciliation by collaborating across cultures to understand how Western and Indigenous ways of knowing might be shared for the healing benefit of all.
 
Andrew Penn, NP, is a board-certified psychiatric nurse practitioner specializing in psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy. He is a cofounder of OPENurses, a professional organization for nurses interested in psychedelic research and practice. He is a clinical professor at the University of California-San Francisco School of Nursing and an attending nurse practitioner at the San Francisco Veterans Administration. As a Psych Congress member, he has presented internationally on topics such as improving medication adherence, psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy, grief psychotherapy, and treatment-resistant depression. He has also spoken at SXSW and has written for the Los Angeles Times.
 
Monnica Williams, PhD, is a clinical psychologist specializing in cognitive behavior therapies. She is a psychology professor at the University of Ottawa, research chair in mental health disparities, and director of the Laboratory for Culture and Mental Health Disparities. She is also clinical director of behavioral wellness clinics in Connecticut and Ottawa. Dr. Williams has conducted clinical research on psychopharmacological treatments of OCD, PTSD, and anxiety disorders; the role of culture and race in mental illness; sexual orientation-themed OCD; and psychedelic medicine. She is also a media expert who has been featured by NPR, The Washington Post, and CNN.
 
Joseph A. Zamaria, PsyD, ABPP, is an associate clinical professor of psychiatry at the UCSF School of Medicine, Weill Institute for Neurosciences; the associate program director for psychotherapy for UCSF’s Psychiatry Residency Training Program, and an attending psychologist at Langley Porter Psychiatric Hospital & Clinics. His clinical and research interests include psychodynamic therapy, internal family systems, and psychedelic peer-support hotlines. He is a member of the Association of Black Psychologists and cofounder of the American Arab, Middle Eastern, and North African Psychological Association. He is also on the editorial board of the Journal of Psychoactive Drugs.
 
Tony Rousmaniere, PsyD, is cofounder and program director of Sentio University. He provides workshops, webinars, and clinical training and supervision around the world. He is the author/coeditor of six books on deliberate practice and psychotherapy training and two book series: The Essentials of Deliberate Practice (APA Books) and Advanced Therapeutics, Clinical and Interpersonal Skills (Elsevier). In 2017, he published the widely cited article in The Atlantic Monthly, “What Your Therapist Doesn’t Know.” Dr. Rousmaniere supports the open-data movement and publishes clinical outcome data at drtonyr.com. He was awarded the Early Career Award by the Society for the Advancement of Psychotherapy.
 
Alexandre Vaz, PhD, is cofounder and chief academic officer of Sentio University. He provides deliberate practice workshops and clinical training and supervision around the world. Dr. Vaz is the author/coeditor of four books on deliberate practice and psychotherapy training and two book series: The Essentials of Deliberate Practice (APA Books) and Advanced Therapeutics, Clinical and Interpersonal Skills (Elsevier). He has held multiple committee roles for the Society for the Exploration of Psychotherapy Integration (SEPI) and the Society for Psychotherapy Research (SPR). Dr. Vaz is founder and host of “Psychotherapy Expert Talks,” an acclaimed interview series with distinguished psychotherapists and researchers.

Series Preface
Tony Rousmaniere and Alexandre Vaz
Acknowledgments
Part I. Overview and Instructions
Chapter 1. Introduction and Overview of Deliberate Practice and Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy
Chapter 2. Instructions for the Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy Deliberate Practice Exercises
Part II. Deliberate Practice Exercises for Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy Skills
Exercises for Beginner Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy Skills
Exercise 1
Exercise 2
Exercise 3
Exercise 4
Exercises for Intermediate Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy Skills
Exercise 5
Exercise 6
Exercise 7
Exercise 8
Exercises for Advanced Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy Skills
Exercise 9
Exercise 10
Exercise 11
Exercise 12
Comprehensive Exercises
Exercise 13. Annotated Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy Session Transcripts
Exercise 14. Mock Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy Sessions
Part III. Strategies for Enhancing the Deliberate Practice Exercises
Chapter 3. How to Get the Most Out of Deliberate Practice for Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy: Additional Guidance for Trainers and Trainees
Appendix A. Difficulty Assessments and Adjustments
Appendix B. Deliberate Practice Diary Form
Appendix C. Sample Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy Syllabus With Embedded Deliberate Practice Exercises
References
Index
About the Authors